The High-School Years of Elizabeth Brownell
by Laurabear
Summary: Elizabeth Brownell is a muggleborn attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 1971, as Voldemort begins his rise to power. She finds a close friend in fellow muggleborn Gryffindor Lily Potter, but also finds friends in the pesky James Potter and the so-called "Marauders." This is the story of James, Lily, the Marauders & Snape, told from the perspective of an outsider.
1. Chapter Zero & a Half - An Introduction

Author's note: I don't own and I am not affiliated in any way with the Harry Potter franchise.

* * *

Thomas and Mary Brownell were muggles. They had no reason to believe in magic, let alone suspect that Britain was chock-full of witches and wizards living in secret. Happily married, with 9 to 5 jobs as an accountant and a doctor, respectively, they lived normal lives in a normal town, with few worries other than where they'll go for dinner each night. There was only magical thing about the Brownells: they were both impossibly rubbish at cooking.

Thomas always knew that he wanted a child, and Mary was never quite too sure, and it wasn't until the pair were in their forties that they decided to try and have a baby. Mary became pregnant at forty-two, and normality became a thing of the past; during her pregnancy, she frequently dreamed about cooking, and at three months pregnant decided to experiment in the kitchen. She was easily able to replicate Julia Child's recipes from the cookbook she had been given the year before as a Christmas present - although she simply saw it as "a coincidence." Thomas, on the other hand, felt that Mary's pregnancy was a blessing from God - in those nine months, he worked for considerably high-profile businesses and clients, who listened to his advice and took it - and most importantly, paid well. Mary found that her pregnancy was actually rather blissful, and began too look forward to having her child.

On February 28th, 1960, the Brownells welcomed a beautiful baby girl into their family. They had debated about names for months, and had decided to call her Amelie - but as they first looked at their new-born baby, they simultaneously asked each other a question:

"What do you think of the name Elizabeth?"

* * *

When February 28th 1971 rolled around, the Brownells expected the usual flurry of birthday cards from family and friends, but they definitely weren't expecting a knock at the door from a woman dressed in a navy pantsuit, pale green brogues, a tight bun and a scowl.

"Hello, are you Thomas and Mary Brownell?"

"Er, yes we are," Thomas stumbled over his words, "uhm, who are you?"

"My name is Minerva McGonagall, I'm the Transfiguration professor at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," said the woman, looking sternly at Thomas over her glasses.

"Ah, right."

"Thomas, dear, why don't we invite Mrs McGonagall inside?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry, uhm, would you like to come inside?"

"Yes, thank you, I have quite a lot to talk to you about, is Elizabeth present?"

* * *

September 1st took forever to arrive, and with every passing moment Elizabeth's excitement grew. Falling asleep the night before had taken forever, and it was rather unfortunate, in that case, that she found herself woken up at 4am, as someone outside had become rather fascinated with the door-bell. Luckily, things as trivial as sleep held little importance to Elizabeth, as she ran downstairs to beat her parents to the door.

"Hullow!" She exclaimed as she swung the door open, and found herself faced with an orange-haired man who broke immediately into a wide, toothy grin.

"Hello! You must be Elizabeth. I was just admiring this buttony thing! Sorry I'm so early, how did you know I was here?"

It was in this moment that Thomas and Mary reached the door, and it took a moment for them to realise that this would be the "muggle-relations" employee who was to escort them to the train station.

"Er, that button's a doorbell. It rings, loudly."

"You must be Thomas! But oh wow, how does that work? Is it connected to the electricalicity?"

"Uhm, yeah, it is, sorry, what's your name?"

It hadn't seemed as if the man's grin could get any bigger, but then it did.

"I'm Arthur Weasley! I work for the Ministry of Magic, I'm in the Muggle Liason office at the moment although, er, not very high up," Arthurs grin faded a little, "but one day I want to be head of a higher ranking department, so we'll see!"

Thomas and Mary nodded, and the look of excitement returned to Arthurs face.

"Do you mind if I come in? I got here a little early, and uh, if you don't mind that is, I'd quite like to hear the noise this doorbutton makes."

* * *

Platform Nine, Platform Ten. Platform Nine and Three Quarters didn't appear to exist, as far as the Brownells could see. Elizabeth bit her lip.

"Mr Weasel?"

"It's uh, Weasley, dear."

"Mr Weasley?"

"You can call me Arthur."

"Alright well, Arthur, where is the platform?"

"Oh! Um, it's right through here..."

Arthur led them to a pillar, and the Brownells watched a few wizarding families run through the wall from afar.

"You see, the thing is, muggles, such as yourselves, er, well, they can't come through. There's spells to stop them, you see. We've been trying to get special permissions for the parents of muggleborn wizards but, erm, it's not too safe at the moment." Arthur glanced at Thomas and Mary, who exchanges uneasy glances.

"Wait," Elizabeth piped up, "how isn't it safe?"

"I'm sure you'll learn about it in school, dear. Now, aren't you going to say goodbye to us?" Asked Mary, with a tone of urgency that Elizabeth couldn't bring herself to argue against. The family exhcanged heartfelt goodbyes, and Elizabeth promised to send letters every second week - with her new owl, Betty - and her parents promised to reply to each one as soon as they could, and send her sweets from home when they could. A second before he and Elizabeth ran through the wall, Arthur quickly apologised;

"I'm sorry for the noise this morning! I'm glad you were all up so early, I wouldn't have wanted to wake you up!"


	2. Chapter One - First Encounters

Elizabeth wasn't normally shy, but once she had gotten on the train, she couldn't bring herself to walk into anyone elses compartment, and found herself sitting alone. She didn't mind this, however, because it provided the perfect opportunity to daydream about what Hogwarts would be like, and eat the sherbet lemons she'd been keeping in her coat pocket. She'd read that the ceiling in the Great Hall had been charmed to look like the sky, and that - rather sociable - ghosts roamed the school. She couldn't wait to start classes, and learn to ride a broom like the witches in fairytales do.

Elizabeth's daydreaming was brought to an end when the compartment door opened quite suddenly.

"Honestly, I cannot believe how _immature_ those boys were, it's downright _disgraceful_. I hope we don't get put in any classes with them," a redheaded girl barged into the room quite angrily, and a sullen-looking boy with black hair followed.

"As long as we don't get put in Gryffindor, we won't have to worry about them," he said, and half-sat down before he noticed Elizabeth. He gawped awkwardly, and turned to the girl beside him for help. She rolled her eyes at him, before smiling politely towards Elizabeth.

"Hey, really sorry, mind if we sit in here with you? We didn't mean to intrude, I didn't see you in the door window," she said, and Elizabeth nodded. The redhead grinned, and sat down adjacent to her, whilst the boy sat by her side. "My name's Lily, Lily Potter, and this is Severus Snape."

"Nice to meet you," he said politely.

"Hullow, I'm Lizzy, Lizzy Brownell, are you new first-years too?" She asked.

"Yeah, we are," Lily grinned, "were your parents magic?"

"No, I'm a muggle-born, were yours?"

"I'm actually muggle-born too! Severus is half-wizard though -"

"- a half-blood,"

" - yes, that, and he already knows all sorts about magic and Hogwarts!"

The three children began to babble excitedly to each other, exchanging stories of things they'd heard or read about the school and the houses. Severus insisted that he and Lily would be sorted into Slytherin, although Elizabeth wasn't sure how enthusiastic Lily seemed about that idea. Elizabeth wanted desperately to be a Gryffindor, but after hearing the duo's previous conversation, she told them she simply wasn't sure.

As the train made it's way through the beautiful Scottish countryside, the excited babble turned into nervous chatter, and the last half-hour of the journey was spent in near-silence. Starting high school is terrifying enough, but it became a little more intimidating - especially to the girls - to start attending a wizarding high school, having gone to muggle primary schools for the first portion of their lives. Eventually the train reached Hogwarts, and the first-years gathered in a group on the platform with a giant of a man with an impressive mane of jet-black hair, and a beard of almost the same length.

"Firs'-years this way!" he shouted, as the last of them got off the train and joined the crowd, "follow me! an' mind yer step!"

They followed him down a steep, narror path in the darkness, and after walking round a slight bend, they could finally see Hogwarts; the amazed children let out an "ooooh!", as they saw the vast castle sat atop the mountain. Lily, however, was distracted by the massive lake between them and the castle.

"I really do hope we won't have to cro-"

"No more than four in a boat, 'mind!" exclaimed the man, and Lily sighed.

"Never mind, then."

Severus and Elizabeth laughed, before beelining to get into the boat with the giant man. Severus and Lily had been allowed to get into his boat, and so Elizabeth had to find a group to share with. Four children to a boat didn't quite equal the weight of three children and a giant. The only group that lacked a fourth member was a group of three boys who were shouting and laughing rather joyously, and seemed rather approachable. She plucked up her courage and approached them.

"Hi, uh, would you mind if I shared your boat?"

The three boys grinned towards her, and one of them, with dark, messy hair and glasses asked the others,

"What do we think, lads? Room for one more?"

Elizabeth blushed, and a rough-looking boy with black hair smiled at her cheekily.

"Of course there is, don't you think, Remus?"

The quieter, mousy-haired boy looked towards her, and nodded. Elizabeth noticed that this boy had particularly kind eyes. The first boy grinned even wider;

"Welcome aboard, m'lady!" he said, extending a hand and helping Elizabeth onto the boat.

Whilst they were sailing towards the castle, the boy with the glasses introduced himself as James Potter, a pure-blood and would-be Gryffindor, and took on the task of introducing his dark-haired friend as Sirius Black - "he's from one of those horrid, stereotypical pureblood Slytherin families, but he's nice, I promise!" - and the mousy-haired boy as Remus Lupin. Elizabeth laughed with them throughout the boat ride, and her desire to be a Gryffindor grew even stronger as she got to know the boys. James was essentially the leader of the group, a bit cheeky, definitely arrogant, but overwhelmingly likable. Sirius was even cheekier than James, but somehow less arrogant. He made it plain that he hated his family and what they stood for, and was desperate to become a Gryffindor. Remus was mostly quiet, but he was friendly, and made sure Elizabeth had the chance to contribute to the conversation. Things turned awkward, however, as James and Sirius told the story of a girl and boy they'd encountered on the Hogwarts Express.

"I don't understand why anyone would want to be in Slytherin, or why that girl would bother sticking up for him!" complained James.

"Er, I actually met those two, I think. They came into my compartment. They were nice."

"Oh."

* * *

Outside the Great Hall, the first-years were met by the same witch who had visited Elizabeth's family on her 11th birthday, Professor McGonagall.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," she said, "the start of term banquet will begin soon, but first you will be sorted into one of four houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Your house will be your family for the next seven years, and you will gain house points for your hard work, and lose them for any bad-behaviour. I wish I could go into further detail, but as it took longer than usual to get you first-years across the lake, we are rather strapped for time. Please, follow me into the Great Hall - the Sorting Ceremony is about to begin."

Elizabeth had stuck with the boys from the boat, and had caught Lily and Severus glowering at her from across the room. She bit her lip and looked at the floor as they walked through into the Great Hall, but immediately became distratced - the Hall was perhaps the most beautiful place she had ever seen. The ceiling truly did look like the starry night sky, and candles levitated in the air. Huge tables seating hundreds of students stretched across the room, and the teachers all sat at a beautiful table at the front of the room. Elizabeth had become truly mesmerised.

She almost didn't hear her name when she was called to be sorted - fifth on the list.

She looked towards the front of the room, towards the rather beaten looking hat which had announced the houses of the four children prior to herself, and nervously made her way to the stool. She sat down, and McGonagall placed the hat on her head.

Instantly, the hat declared her to be a Gryffindor.


	3. Chapter Two - Making Friends

Elizabeth sat down at the Gryffindor table, grinning from ear to ear and receiving similar smiles from the older Gryffindors around her. As she made sure to sit somewhere with enough space for the three boys and possibly Lily, she couldn't stop smiling to herself. She was elated – Gryffindor had been her goal since she first read 'Hogwarts: A History'. She couldn't wait to send her parents a letter and let them know.

Soon after she had been sorted, McGonagall called out a familiar name.

"Black, Sirius!"

Sirius made his way to the front of the hall and sat on the stool, as McGonagall dropped the hat onto his head. After a few seconds, Sirius was scowling, and a few seconds later he looked incredibly confused. After a minute or so, the hat eventually bellowed "Gryffindor!" Sirius looked relieved.

He sat next to Elizabeth at the Gryffindor table, but rather than cheers, Sirius had received silence upon being sorted. This didn't seem to affect him though, and he smiled almost defiantly as he took his seat.

"You looked less than happy," Elizabeth remarked, "what happened?"

"Stupid hat started talking about my family, how they're all Slytherins. Then it said it'd put me in Ravenclaw."

"You must be really smart, then."

"Yeah, right."

The pair stopped talking as "Evans, Lily!" approached the front of the hall. She smiled reassuringly at Severus, who was still waiting to be sorted, before taking a seat.

Barely a moment passed, and the hat declared Lily a Gryffindor.

Applause erupted from the Gryffindor table again – but Lily didn't seem as excited as the other new Gryffindors, and just smiled sadly towards Severus. She came to sit down next to Elizabeth, but sat so she was facing her directly, almost sitting sideways on the bench – she point blank refused to even look towards Sirius.

Remus eventually joined the trio at the Gryffindor table, and even managed to engage in a friendly conversation with Lily for a few minutes. Elizabeth decided that Remus was the nicest of the boys, and was determined to become his friend.

"Pettigrew, Peter!" became a Gryffindor after ten minutes or so, and sat down near the group, mostly fiddling with his thumbs and looking sorry for himself. Sirius seemed to take pity on him, and began to make small talk with him. Remus sat silently, seeming rather content, whilst Elizabeth and Lilly discussed Severus.

"He's my best friend and all, but I never really wanted to be a Slytherin. They seem like a bad lot."

"Why didn't you just tell him?"

"He's dead set on it, you see – can't shut up about it. Whenever he would mention Hogwarts, which was all of the time, he would say something like 'I really hope we're in Slyther-"

They were interrupted by a particularly loud roar of applause from their table, with what seemed like most of the noise coming from Sirius. James Potter had just become a Gryffindor.

"Oh, for Pete's sake."

"He's not all bad, Lily. I was on his boat."

"I'll believe it when I see it."

James came and sat with them all, and Elizabeth watched as the four boys chatted to each other, with Sirius and James laughing and grinning like madmen, while Remus smiled calmly and Peter just looked anxious. She felt as if the four would probably stay friends through the rest of her Hogwarts career. She wasn't sure yet as to where she stood with Lily.

Lily was the only non-Slytherin to applaud when "Snape, Severus!" joined the Slytherin table.

* * *

Elizabeth and Lily had almost forgotten about Snape after the feast, and they were both in complete awe of what they'd seen of Hogwarts so far.

"The plates just kept _refilling_ themselves!"

"I can't believe there really are _ghosts_!"

"And oh my gosh, the _ceiling_!"

* * *

Most students from the higher years had the common sense to go to bed not long after the feast, but many of the first years stayed awake, sitting in the common room, trying to make friends and predict what the next day would have in store for them.

Lily and Elizabeth were among this group, although Lily started up a conversation with a girl Elizabeth vaguely remembered as being Mary something or other from the sorting ceremony. They talked about their time table and Elizabeth sat by quietly for a few moments, before wandering off, deciding to see if the boys were doing anything a little more interesting – and she wasn't disappointed.

"I bet you five galleons that I can make Peter float!" boasted Sirius. James laughed, and stood up.

"I'll take that bet – I reckon you don't even know any spells yet!" he mocked, shaking Sirius' hand.

Elizabeth sat down next to Remus, who smiled at her, kindly, before turning back to his friends, raising his eyebrows at Sirius.

Peter seemed nervous – although, Elizabeth was beginning to suspect that this was usually the case with Peter.

"Uhm, I don't think I'd like to be levitated, if I'm honest."

"Hah!" laughed Sirius, "c'mon Peter! It's fun! My brother loves it when I levitate him!"

"I, I'm just, I don't think I'd want to."

"Oh Peter, don't be a spoilsport – I'll lose this bet by default if you won't let me!"

"Please, Sirius, I just don't want to –"

"James, will you still give Sirius five galleons if he can levitate me instead?" asked Remus, coming to Peters aid. He seemed both amused and bored at the same time.

"Sure, why not," replied James coolly, "it isn't like he'll actually be able to do it."

"Shake on it, then" demanded Sirius, and the boys shook hands. Sirius grinned, took out his wand and pointed it at Remus, giving it a swift swish and a flick – "WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA!"

The entire common room stopped – Elizabeth reckoned that Sirius had only shouted to get everyone's attention – and watched as Sirius raised his wand, concentrating on Remus.

Remus began to float. Applause broke out.

"Remind me to give you those five galleons when we're in the dorm," James laughed, "Merlin, I didn't think you'd actually be able to do that."

Sirius turned to face James, and Remus crashed to the ground, much to the amusement of everyone else in the room.

"Don't worry, I won't forget," he chuckled.

Sirius glanced towards Elizabeth, and grinned when he saw the look of awe on her face.

A few hours passed, and most people had gone up to bed. The four boys stayed in the common room, although Peter had seemingly fallen asleep in his chair. Elizabeth had put a blanket over him, and sat with the other three by the fire.

"How's your bum, Remus?" Sirius asked, "I never meant to drop you like that."

"It's alright, mate. How'd you learn to do that anyway?"

"Well, my family showed me. How else?"

Elizabeth furrowed her brow.

"I thought it's illegal for kids to do magic outside of school?"

"Only muggle-borns, really," said Remus, "The Ministry can only detect that there is magic happening where you are. It could be your parents, for all they know. Muggle-borns don't have magical parents though, so they're the only ones that could ever really get caught."

"That's hardly fair – "

"True, but the way most people see it, it's better than the Ministry keeping tabs on every single wizard and what spells they're performing."

"Jeez," interjected James, "don't get all political on me. Let's talk about something else – can any of you fly yet?"

Sirius grinned wickedly.

"Want to make another bet?"

* * *

The next morning, Elizabeth and Lily sat at the Slytherin table for breakfast. Other than Severus, nobody sat within a good three feet of them.

"I'm so sorry, Sev, I didn't even have time to think before it said Gryffindor, I don't know what I could've done."

"It's alright – it isn't your fault," he said, "you're just real brave is all. I suppose Gryffindor isn't all that bad."

Lily grinned at him.

"Does this mean we're okay?"

"Of course we're okay. What class have you two got first?"

Elizabeth looked at her timetable, which she'd already colour coded.

"Charms, how about you?"

"I've got transfiguration. Should be fun, with that old bat McGonagall."

"Hey, she's not that bad," Elizabeth insisted, while Lily nodded her support.

"I suppose I'll find out today, then."

* * *

When Charms rolled around, Elizabeth found herself disappointed – Lily had apparently promised to sit with Mary while they spoke the night before, and obviously James was sitting with Sirius, while Remus and Peter sat beside each other too.

Elizabeth ended up sitting with a cheeky-looking girl called River Jordan, and within five minutes of the lesson starting, they were already firm friends. River reminded her somewhat of Sirius and James – she bragged a little, laughed a lot, and was incredibly cocky. The pair had to supress giggles when their charms professor, the tiny Professor Flitwick, had to stand on a pile of books to address the class.

They didn't laugh so much when they realised they wouldn't be practising any real charms in this class until after October, although Elizabeth decided to take extensive notes anyway, while River just seemed to kick back and relax.

After class, they grouped up with Lily and Mary and began to make their way to Herbology.

"What do you two think of Flitwick?" Lily asked, with an irritated tone to her voice.

"I like him," said Elizabeth, and River agreed, "how come?"

"We saw you laughing at him, for being short. It wasn't nice." Mary glared at them as she spoke.

"Hey, we didn't mean to," insisted River, defensively, "we tried not to, and I'm sure Lizzy took way more notes than you did."

"Alright," interrupted Lily, "we didn't mean to start an argument, we just didn't want you to be nasty to him. Let's not fight, please."

River and Mary glowered at each other, but Lily's powers as a peacemaker rivalled even Remus', and they both shut up for the rest of the walk.


End file.
